Waiting Room
by Sully-van
Summary: When Ace's brother gets hit by a car, the twenty year old doesn't expect to find solace in a bright-eyed teenager named Luffy. Implied Ace/Luffy, AU.


**Note**: First time I've uploaded something in over a month, wow... I'm sick right now, but I felt like writing. I haven't really gotten the chance to write lately, but luckily I have a few things to post today :')! This is just a quick little think but aye...

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**Waiting Room**

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Ace paces around the basically empty waiting room, his lower lip tucked between his teeth. There are dark bags underneath his eyes and his eyebrows are furrowed. To anyone, it would be obvious that the twenty year old was extremely worried.

If someone looked close enough, they would see the level of worry, pain, and guilt that the man felt.

"It should have been me," he whispers under his breath, teeth sinking into his lip deep enough to break the skin.

It had been a good day; a really good day. Ace had spent the majority of the day with his brother Sabo and a few of their friends, but on the walk back home to their apartment Ace's narcolepsy had started to kick in while they had been crossing the street when someone had decided to run a red light and headed straight for Ace. However, Sabo had pushed Ace out of the way at the last second, getting hit by the car instead.

That had snapped Ace out of the narcolepsy attack very quick.

Four hours had passed since then and it was now so late at night that it was early.

There wasn't anything that could make Ace leave until he found out how his brother was.

"Hey," a high pitched voice says from behind him, making Ace jump. He braces himself quickly and turns around, but it isn't a doctor like he's expecting. It's a short teen with wild black hair and a straw hat hanging from his neck on a screen. His eyes are dark blue and they're rimmed red, like he had been crying. However, the teen doesn't look upset. If anything he looks relieved and curious. He holds two styrofoam cups of coffee in each hands. "Are you alright?"

"Ah… Yeah… Yeah, sure." Ace says, shaking his head. He doesn't really feel like talking to anyone that doesn't know anything about Sabo's condition.

"I saw you pacing around and I thought you might want some coffee. So, here!" The teen smiles and extends a cup of dark brown coffee.

"I…Thanks." Ace says, taking the cup from the shorter male. The warm liquid sloshes around in the cup, almost out of the cup and onto his callused fingers.

"It' no problem! I'm Luffy, by the way! You look like you need someone to talk to and I feel like talking!"

Ace stares at Luffy abit dumbly for what must be at least a minute. "Really…I'm okay."

"Mm, you don't really look okay. We don't have to talk about why you're waiting here, y'know. Nami and Robin always say that I'm great at distracting people!"

"I'm fine, you don't have to." Ace says, but the teenager isn't having any of it and takes Ace by the hand and drags him to the chairs.

"So what's your name?" Luffy chirps brightly, completely ignoring the fact that Ace didn't even want to talk.

"Ace. Look, I'm really not in the mood to talk right now."

"Ace is a really cool name! And you really look like you need to talk! Do you want any sugar?" Luffy pulls packets of cream and sugar out of his pockets.

"Listen, it's nothing against you, I only just wanna talk to a doctor that can tell me if my brother is still alive or not." Ace takes some of the packets anyways, opening them and putting them into his coffee.

"Do you know who the doctor is?" Luffy asks, taking a sip of steaming hot coffee. "I know a lot of the doctors here! I'm pretty clumsy and I get in a lot of fights, so I end up here a lot!"

"I think the nurse said Trafalgar Law…" Ace responds, staring down at the now light brown liquid.

"AH!" Luffy exclaims, sitting up quickly and spilling some of his coffee on him. "OUCH!"

Ace jumps a bit and nearly spills his coffee on himself, but reaches for napkins and pats Luffy's coffee stained lap.

"Shishishi, thanks Ace!" Luffy says, letting Ace pat his lap. The teen can see how on edge the elder is, so if cleaning up his spilled coffee helps him, then why not. "But your brother is in great hands! I'm really good friends with Torao! He acts like he doesn't care, but he's a really great doctor!"

"He is?"

"Yep! I know him really good! I don't know what's wrong with your brother, but if he's operating on your brother, he'll try his hardest with your brother!"

"I…I really hope so. I can't lose him you know? It's really all my fault…" Ace says, settling back in his seat. He isn't completely sure why he's opening up to a complete stranger. There's something about Luffy that just makes him incredibly easy to talk to. It feels as if he's known him for much longer than the past few minutes or so.

"I don't think it's your fault." Luffy says, resting his cup in between his thighs.

"But it is my fault. He wouldn't be on the verge of death right now if I had just realized that a car was coming. Fuck." Ace rubs his eyes, trying to ignore the stinging feeling in them.

Luffy hums thoughtfully, staring up at the white ceiling. "Well, I know how you feel. When I was younger, my adoptive father lost his arm after I fell from a boat. I couldn't swim or anything so he jumped in after me. A shark bit off his arm. I felt so bad at first and cried a lot, but Shanks told me to not to feel bad and that he did it cause he loved me. Y'know, I probably would have died if I had been bitten by that shark. Shanks and Makino wouldn't have liked that. They would have been really, really sad. Makino even cried a lot afterwards cause she was so scared she was gonna lose me. I'm living right now because of Shanks, so I wanna live life to the fullest without any regrets! I bet your brother would think the same, you know? And you probably would have done the same for him!"

Ace stares at the younger boy in poorly hidden amazement, the teenager smiling back brightly at him. That was a way of thinking that Ace… actually really agreed with. And it was true that Ace would have done the same for Sabo in a heartbeat.

It doesn't stop the bad feeling of guilt in his stomach, but it does lessen it.

"I… You're right. I would have but this shouldn't have happened in the first place."

"Hey," Luffy says, reaching over and taking Ace's larger hand in his own. "It's gonna be okay! I can stay with you until the Torao comes and tells you how your brother is!"

"I'd really like that… Thanks." Ace says after a moment of hesitation, squeezing Luffy's hand.

The teenager laughs, a bright, happy and unique sound. "It's no problem!"

Ace can't help the small twitch his lips make in response.

The two males talk for what could be minutes or even hours. Ace would be lying if he said that talking to Luffy was a really great distraction.

He had found out that Luffy was at the hospital still because he had been waiting to see if his best friend was okay after an operation he needed after being shot by a stray bullet. (Luffy's friend was an undercover cop the teenager had explained.) Luffy's friend was now in stable condition. Ace just wasn't sure how he hadn't noticed the teen earlier in the waiting room, but he owed it to his frantic pacing.

They also talked about other things and it turned out that the two of them had a lot of things in common. Luffy was into MMA and cage fighting just like Ace was and they had been talking about the latest match until a very tall, tired looking tattooed man in scrubs had interrupted them.

"Are you Portgas-ya?" The man said in a smooth voice.

"TORAO!" Luffy cheers, throwing his arms up in the air.

"Luffy-ya… I was afraid I heard your voice." The surgeon sighs, but it doesn't entirely sincere.

"I'm Portgas-ya, that's me. How's my brother?" Ace starts before Luffy can say something else. He stands up and Luffy follows.

Dark eyes meet Ace's and the lanky surgeon looks at the clipboard in his hands. "There were a few close calls, but Outlook-ya is in stable condition. There was internal bleeding and harm to his skull, but we've We're going to keep him in the hospital for two weeks or so."

Relief floods Ace's veins and his knees feel weak, as if he's going to loose his balance and fall. Luckily, Luffy is right next to him and seems tthat Ace is about to stumble. The teen cheers loudly and throws his arms around Ace in a hug. The twenty year old can't help but hug the younger male back.

"See! I told you he would be okay!" Luffy says, staring up at Ace.

"Yeah… Thanks for staying with me." Ace smiles softly at Luffy, who's cheeks flush slightly before he grins widely.

"Anytime!"

"I'll leave you two to your hugging. Your brother is still asleep and will probably stay that way for a few more hours. You should go home, visiting hours are long over."

"Yeah… Yeah, sure. Thanks, Doctor."

"Thanks Torao!"

Law looks a bit flustered at the thanks, turning around on his heel and stalking away. But not before muttering, "Get out of my hospital."

Luffy laughs loudly, throwing his head back. "None of the doctors I know ever take compliments, it's really funny!"

"…Same. Doctors are weird." Ace says, dropping his arms from around Luffy's torso. Luffy however, doesn't stop hugging the older man, causing Ace to chuckle. "Do you need a ride home?"

"Shishishi, sure!" Luffy chirps, letting Ace go. "I told my friends that they could go home without me, cause I saw you and thought that you looked really lonely!"

Ace smiles weakly and ruffles Luffy's hair. "Thanks."

Luffy smiles up at him brightly, pulling him along out of the hospital.

The twenty year old takes the teenager home and if he ends up with Luffy's number, a date for when Sabo's out of the hospital, and a lighter feeling when he visits his brother the next day, that is a secret.


End file.
